Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a progressive kidney disease associated with longstanding diabetes mellitus. It causes abnormal fluid filtration and increased urinary albumin excretion, eventually leading to kidney failure.
DN displays no symptoms in its early course. As such, it is difficult to detect the incipiency of this disease. In fact, present diagnosis of DN depends on development of microalbuminuria, which occurs when kidney damage is already in place. The lack of an early diagnostic test prevents effective treatment of early stage DN.
It is of great importance to identify reliable biomarkers useful in diagnosing early stage DN.